bencher

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. One that sits on a bench.

n. Chiefly British A member of the inner or higher bar who acts as a governor of one of the Inns of Court.

n. One, such as a magistrate, who occupies a bench.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. One of the senior governing members of an Inn of Court.

n. An alderman of a corporation.

n. A member of a court or council.

n. One who frequents the benches of a tavern; an idler.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. One of the senior and governing members of an Inn of Court.

n. An alderman of a corporation.

n. A member of a court or council.

n. One who frequents the benches of a tavern; an idler.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. In England, one of the senior members of an inn of court, who have the government of the society.

n. One who occupies an official bench; a judge; sometimes, specifically, a municipal or local magistrate; an alderman or justice.

n. One who frequents the benches of a tavern; an idler.

Etymologies

bench +‎ -er. (Wiktionary)

Examples

A front bencher from the last parliament said frankly: None of us has the first sodding idea about what government means, whether any of us will be any good at it, or even what being good at it means .......

As I wrote at the time, shortly before Time magazine named you 1995 Man of the Year, you were no longer just a bomb-throwing back bencher but a visionary who comes up with 10 new ideas every day, even if one critic -- actually, it was me -- said nine of them are goofy and one is brilliant.